


In An Awful Fix

by zillanewt (gothwoozi)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 80s AU, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Punk, Coming of Age, Drama & Romance, High School, M/M, basically a John Hughes movie but kagehina, i guess?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27241537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothwoozi/pseuds/zillanewt
Summary: When Hinata's father passes away in the summer of 1985, he and his family are compelled to move in with his grandmother in Tokyo. As he explores life in a big city, he discovers that he may be in love with straight A student, Kageyama. Adolescent drama ensues.Orthe coming of age 80s movie for Kageyama and Hinata
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 12
Kudos: 16





	1. September 1985

**Author's Note:**

> I did a thing. I'm such a softie for Hughes movies, especially Pretty in Pink. So here we are. Enjoy!

It wasn’t even a particularly hot summer this year. As Hinata packed his last box into the rented trailer, he noted it was only about 21 degrees celsius. Though, the humidity clung to his skin, smothering and suffocating him. 

He clenches his jaw in frustration.

Izumi and Koji, his middle school friends, approach the vehicle on their bikes. Solemnly, Koji holds out a black and white envelope.

“Sorry. I wasn’t able to make it to the wake,” he says, avoiding eye-contact with Hinata.

Embarrassed, Hinata wants to decline, but he knows he can’t with his mom packing the rest of the trailer. It would be too rude.

“Thank you,” he says quietly, accepting the condolence money. 

The silence that follows is almost as suffocating for Hinata as the humidity. No matter where he goes, everyone glances at him in pity. Nobody knows how to speak to him anymore. How is he supposed to grieve when nothing will go back to normal? At least when he’s in Tokyo, nobody will know. He can start high school off as normal as possible. 

“It sucks that we won’t be going to the same high school,” Izumi bursts. He seems like he might genuinely cry, but he won’t out of respect for Hinata. Hinata appreciates it.

“Yeah!” Koji joins, trading his grimace for a wide grin. “But, Hinata will be fine without us. He’ll probably forget all about us when he meets the city babes.”

Just then, Natsu, Hinata’s 6-year-old sister, comes bounding out of the house with her brand new Sylvanian Family playset. Hinata’s parents bought it for her in Sendai about a month before the incident. 

“What’s a ‘babe,’ Mommy?” she yells as she runs towards her mother, handing her the playset.

“It’s a beautiful girl, sweetheart,” she coos, about to place the playset in the trailer. She looks over at the group of teenage boys, “But, it’s not nice to use that kind of language to refer to women.”

“No, Mommy!” Natsu protests, clearly losing interest in the conversation. She pouts, stomps, and points at her playset next to the box marked ‘TOWELS?’ “I want them to sit with me.”

“Ok, honey,” she grabs them and hands them over. “Go put them in your car seat.”

Excitedly, Natsu about all the toy and sweets shops there will be in Tokyo

“I don’t know about girls,” Hinata murmurs bashfully, gripping the straps of his backpack. “I don’t even know about friends. I won’t know anyone. They’ll probably think I’m a country hick.”

“You’re the most upbeat and kindest person in our class, Hinata,” Izumi claims. “There’s no way you won’t fit in somewhere at your new school.”

Hinata’s mom slams the trailer door shut.

“If you’re ever in Tokyo, be sure to come to see me,” Hinata offers, running off to the car.

He hopes that Izumi is right.

  
***************  
  
  


When they arrive at Grandma’s house, it’s already 8 p.m. Truthfully, his Grandma doesn’t live in the heart of Tokyo but in the surrounding suburbs. Hinata is appreciative, because otherwise, they’d all be crammed into a tiny apartment.

There’s an American song playing over the radio. Hinata can’t make out all the words, because he did poorly studying English in junior high. He can make out the word “love.” It reminds him of one of those songs they play in American teen films. He, Izumi, and Koji saw one once on a weekend trip to Sendai. 

Hinata didn’t get the big deal. A poor girl falls in love with a rich guy, and that’s it. He was bored the whole time. He wishes they went to see “The Karate Kid” instead.

Maybe, he’s just not a romantic.

“Hinata, will you help your sister out of her car seat?” His mom asks as his grandma approaches. “Mom! Thank you so much for doing this for us!”

His mom and grandma embrace tightly. They both have tears in their eyes. 

“I’d do anything for you, dear,” she says. “We’re family. It’s so tragic what happened. You never realize how precious life is until it’s gone early. We must enjoy every single day.”

At the ripe age of 15, Hinata never fully appreciated or processed these words he overheard. It’s something everyone had told him after Dad died. At the moment, it was a hollow and empty phrase to his stupid adolescent mind. 

He holds Natsu’s hand in one of his and a box of his manga in another. Natsu holds her playset with her own tiny hands.

“Brother, why is Mommy and Granny so sad?” Natsu asks cluelessly. Hinata thinks that’s been the hardest part of this whole ordeal. How are you supposed to explain death to a 6-year-old? Of course, she knows Dad is gone, but she doesn’t understand the permanence of it quite yet. 

“They miss Daddy,” he says solemnly and numbly. He wishes he could be more upset, but he expended all his sorrow a month ago. Now, he’s trying to move on and not feel as much anymore. 

“I miss him too!” she exclaims. She’s about to talk about how much she can’t wait to play with him again, when she’s cut off by a badly spray-painted car that speeds past the street blaring loud rock music. Hinata should be annoyed, but he’s thankful that the driver interrupted. He doesn’t want to have this conversation with Natsu anymore. 

The car pulls over at the house next door and drops off a guy with a shaved head. He has a coupleof ear piercings, but he’s still wearing a school uniform. He only looks like he might be a year or two older than Hinata. Soon, the car continues to speed off.

“Delinquent!” Grandma shouts, waving her fist in the air. The guy sneers at her and then gives a rude gesture.“I apologize. This is usually a quiet neighborhood, but that kid! I wish his parents would control him!”

If one thing is for sure, Tokyo is a lot more interesting than his little village 30 miles west of Sendai. 

  
****************  
  
  


Hinata discovers in his first two weeks that the student population in Hinata’s new high-school was way bigger than he had anticipated. He’s never felt so small and insignificant before. Though, it wasn’t all bad. Like Izumi predicted, he attracted a friend. 

One day before class, he was struggling to get a peach yogurt from the vending machine. A girl with blonde hair approached and banged on the side a couple of times. Hinata recognized her because she sat a couple of rows behind him. She introduced herself as Yachi, and for the first time since arriving in Tokyo, Hinata made his first friend.

Nearly every day after school, they rode around on their bikes, while Yachi showed Hinata all the good shops to visit. 

On a Friday afternoon, they visited a popular diner that serves hamburgers a couple of blocks from their school. 

“You’ve had a hamburger before, right?” she jokes with him, poking at his right side.

“You know I’ve been a part of civilization my whole life, right?” Hinata pokes back. There’s no bitterness. It’s warm and friendly. Hinata’s heart swells.

As they’re walking in and seating themselves, a teenage voice yells from across the room. 

“Yachi!” a classmate with spiky hair that looks like an onion shouts, earning grimaces from the other patrons. He leaves his table, approaching theirs. By his curled lip, Hinata assumes this won’t be a pleasant exchange. “What is a cutie like you doing with a shrimp like this?”

“We’re friends!” she glares back. “It doesn’t matter anyway, because I don’t like you, Kindaichi!”

“Woah!” he exclaims, slapping Hinata on the back hard enough to leave a mark. “Looks like you’ve been friendzoned, my little shrimp buddy.”

“Maybe, if you’d get your mind out of the gutter, you’d realize boys and girls can hang out as friends,” she scolds him. “Now, can you leave? You’re ruining my appetite.”

Kindaichi clenches his jaw and turns around to leave. 

It’s odd. Hinata has never considered Yachi as a romantic prospect. He probably should, shouldn’t he? They’re both young, and she’s cute. 

He probably hasn’t, because he’s just so grateful to have a friend in the first place. 

Kindaichi sits back down at his table. A guy with light brown hair laughs at him, while another guy with spiky brown hair silently and judgmentally stares him down. A boy with shaggy black hair and piercing blue eyes sits there bored, sipping a coke. He glances towards their table. 

He and Hinata make eye contact. 

Suddenly, Hinata refers to his base instinct from every romance manga and film. 

He ducks his head down at the menu. 

  
  
**************  
  
  
  


“I’m sorry about that,” Yachi apologizes profusely, genuinely embarrassed by the behavior of their classmate. They grab their bicycles. “Kindaichi has been obsessed with me since junior high, which would be fine if he wasn’t such a jerk.”

Hinata is about to reply, when he hears a loud clang come from the alley adjacent to the diner. He notices his punk neighbor in a red and white striped smock with a white hat. And, he notices back. 

“Hey!” he shouts, approaching them. Yachi tries to hide behind Hinata who isn’t much taller than she is. “I know you!”

“You do?” Yachi asks, confused and slowly creeping out from behind Hinata. 

“You’re my neighbor! It’s good to finally meet!” he exclaims with a wide grin. He turns to Yachi with a sparkle in his eye. “I don’t know you, little lady, but thank you so much for telling off that yuppie. That group of kids annoys the hell out of me.”

“Oh, you heard that?” she murmurs shyly. 

“I hear everything,” he says, proudly. “I am the fly on the wall of this establishment.”

“Really?” she asks innocently. “Because, you look like a busboy to me.”

He instantly deflates.

“Well, yes that’s true,” he concedes. “BUT! I overhear a lot. Most of these high school kids are a bunch of weasels.”

“Aren’t you a student?” Hinata questions. He knows he’s seen him leave the house in their school uniform, but he’s also seen him take it off and stuff it into his bag a block away from his house. Something that would send Hinata’s grandma into a list of profanities if he told her. 

“Yep! Ryunosuke Tanaka, Second Year!” he claims, leaning over to whisper to them “Barely. I guess school isn’t really my thing. And, be sure to call me ‘Tanaka.’ I don’t really care for formalities”

“We’re first years,” Yachi tells him. “I’m Yachi, and this is Hinata.”

“I knew you guys were first years,” he grins widely. His manager appears from the backdoor, shouting profanities.“If you ever get tired of hanging out here and paying for overpriced burgers, you know where to find me.”

With that, Tanaka leaves. Now, Hinata can tell Izumi that he has at least two friends. 


	2. October 1985

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone's interested, I've made a playlist for this (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5q8VlEWKJoZFf1Kzyz9rqc). Some of it is 80s music and some of it just fit the vibe. If you're a Oikawa stan, I apologize for making him an antagonist. Nothing personal. Just that every 80s teen movie needs a rich jerk antagonist.

It’s the first morning of October 1985. When Hinata leaves his house, he spots Tanaka peeking over the cement wall around their garden, waiting for him as usual. They’ve been walking together to the school for at least two weeks. Hinata leaves behind his bike, so they can walk together.

“I don’t know why you always insist on walking with me to school,” he chides with no real bite. “You just end up skipping to go to the arcade or movies.”

“I just want to spend time with my friend!” he snarks back. They begin to walk, and he sticks his hands in his pocket that stubborn way he does. “And considering that you refuse to hang with me in the evening, this is my only option.”

Hinata knew this was coming. Tanaka has been bugging him to go to this hangout spot with him and some of his other friends for the past few weeks. It seems a little overwhelming. He’s just gotten used to the big differences between his little village and Tokyo.

“It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with you. It’s that you and your friends like to hang out at nightclubs,” Hinata replies. “It just sounds like too much.”

“It’s not like a typical Tokyo night club! There aren’t rich yuppies drinking hard liquor and doing coke in the bathroom!” Tanaka defends his favorite hole-in-the-wall. “There’s really no pressure to do anything you don’t want to. We just like to listen to music and relax. It’s the only kind of place guys like me are understood.”

Hinata sighs, “You promise I won’t have to do anything intense?”

“I guarantee it, bro!” he smiles widely, swinging his arm over Hinata’s shoulder. “And, if anyone asks you to do something that you don’t want to, we’ll kick the snot out of them.”

“We’ll go Friday then,” Hinata concedes. Tanaka cheers a little.

Hinata considers that this could be really good for him.   
  


*******************

He arrives just early enough to ask Yachi to check his homework. As she glances over it, she asks him what he’s doing this weekend. 

“I’m going to a club with Tanaka,” he answers nervously, awaiting a disapproving reaction. Instead, she just gazes at him in awe.

“That’s so cool, Hinata! You really need to get out of your shell and meet some people!” she cheers him on. 

“You don’t think it’s a stupid idea?” he asks, chewing his lip. 

“You’re going to be with Tanaka,” she waves him off, erasing one of his answers and changing it. “That guy is so intense. I don’t think he’d let anything bad happen to one of his friends.” She starts to trail off, “Actually, I think it’s stupid when people judge him on his appearance. He’s more decent than some of the top students here.”

As she’s speaking, a group of students enters the classroom. Hinata recognizes some of them from the incident at the diner. He especially notices the boy with shaggy dark hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Speak of the devil,” she murmurs, nodding her head to the guy with light brown hair. “I hear Oikawa is the worst of them.”

Hinata thinks that Oikawa overhears as he coldly gazes in their direction and clears his throat. 

“As some of you may know, student body elections are coming soon,” Oikawa states to the class with an impossible air of confidence. “We just wanted to announce that if any candidate wants to run, they need to report to Room 3-4 this Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. That is all!”

“Like, it matters who runs,” Yachi whispers to Hinata. “It’s always the same students.”

Hinata is about to ask her what she means, when their teacher enters the classroom and orders everyone to their seats.

  
***************  
  


“What’s the deal with Oikawa?” Hinata asks Yachi after school. Currently, she’s preoccupied aggressively trying to shake a strawberry yogurt from the vending machine. 

“He’s a total pig,” she sneers, banging against the pink tin siding of the machine. “I heard that he likes to sleep around with girls, because he’s class president. He seems greedy and manipulative. He probably thinks he can do whatever he wants, because his family has money and he’s a popular student.”

“I guess that seems about right,” Hinata hums. He’s never really dealt with this sort of issue before. Sure, some students were more popular than others in his village, but for the most part, all their parents were laborers, shopkeeps, or farmers. “What’s the deal with that one guy on the student council with the shaggy black hair?”

“Kageyama?” she quirks her eyebrow, finally getting her yogurt from the machine. “I don’t know a lot about him, but I haven’t heard any bad rumors. He’s the vice president, and from what I know, he’s a little bit of a control freak.”

“You don’t think he’s a jerk like Oikawa, do you?” Hinata really hopes he isn’t. For some reason, he hopes that he isn’t as popular with the girls either.

He doesn’t even want to think about what that could mean.

“Who knows? Though, I don’t think anyone could stomach associating with Oikawa, unless they had some skeletons in their closet.”

  
  
*************  
  
  
  


Hinata had no clue what Tanaka and his friends would be wearing to the club. Therefore, he has no clue what to wear. From Tanaka’s ear piercings, Hinata assumed it would be a punk type of place. 

Ok, so he just has to wear something black.

Almost hopelessly, he stared at his closet full of bright-colored t-shirts, polos, and button-downs. In fact, the only black thing he may own is his school uniform.

He remembers the wooden trunk that he shoved to the back of his closet that he swore he wouldn’t open for another decade or so. Hesitantly, he shoved a pile of heavy blankets, comforters, and pillows to another side of his closet. He unlatched the trunk and stared inside. Photos of him and his dad… A pair of fishing poles… Every single birthday gift from his dad… Just a bunch of small sentimental tokens…

And, one black Ghostbusters t-shirt.. Last summer, he begged his dad for weeks to take him to the premiere of the move in Sendai. They must have waited in line at least 3 hours to get tickets.

This shirt would do just fine.

For pants, he chose a pair of high waisted blue-jeans that had a hole in the right knee from when Hinata ate shit trying to show off a trick on his bike to Izumi and Koji. His mom won’t let him wear them out in public anymore, but he supposes that when he’s sneaking away to a punk club, all less important rules go out the window. 

  
*********************

“What are you and Yachi doing again?” his mom asks as he’s walking down the stairs. “You’re wearing that?” she gestures towards his jeans.

Hinata stops nervously. He’s never done anything like this. Well, maybe little things, but nothing like this. His grandma would qualify this as delinquency.

“We’re going to the roller rink. These kinds of jeans are in style, and I figure if I fall, I won’t do too much more damage.” he lies, nearly sweating. His mom trusts him enough that she doesn’t even bat an eye. 

“Ok. Better to not ruin a good pair of pants.”

Natsu screams out, “I want to go!”

“No, sweetheart,” his mom brushes her fingers through Natsu’s hair. “Your big brother is going with his girlfriend.”

Hinata can feel something like embarrassment creeping up. Is that because he likes Yachi? At the moment, that seems like the only logical explanation.

“Big brother has a girlfriend?!” Natsu gasps with childish indignation, crossing her arms and putting on a wide pout. “Why does he never bring her over to play?”

“She’s not my girlfriend, Mom,” Hinata stammers, feeling too embarrassed to let his mom see his face. “We’re just friends!”

“You’re still young. You never know,” she shrugs. Through their front window, Hinata spots the spray-painted car rounding the corner. “Do you need any money?” she asks.

“No, I’ll be fine, Mom!” Hinata shouts as he runs out the door. He can hear his grandmas yell all the way from the kitchen, “Those damn kids better turn off that damn music!”

As he and Tanaka discussed, the car does not stop in front of his house. He walks down to the end of the block, where they meet. 

“Damn, I can hear your granny from the moon,” Tanaka plays, leaning over the backseat to manually pull on the lock and swing the door open. 

“She’d stop if you turned your music down,” Hinata informed, taking his seat in the back. There are crushed soda cans littering the floor and burn holes in the upholstery. Otherwise, it wasn’t too bad.

“That’ll absolutely never happen,” the guy in the driver’s seat speaks up. 

“Oh, how rude of me!” Tanaka mockingly smacks the side of his head. “I forgot to introduce Nishinoya.”

“You can call me Noya,” he buzzes, returning the car to gear and taking off. Hinata notices that Noya isn’t much taller than he is. It’s a little comforting. Ever since he got here, he’s gotten constant comments from fellow male classmates about how small he is. He knows. They don’t have to remind him. It becomes overwhelmingly demeaning after a while. 

But, this guy is about the same height, and he’s probably 10 times cooler than any of his classmates. 

Before Nishinoya can ask him for his name, Hinata bursts, “I’m Hinata Shoyo” with sparkles in his eyes. “You seem so cool!”

For a moment, it’s silent except for the cassette tape playing. Then, Nishinoya lets out a hearty chuckle. “I like this guy, Tanaka.”

“I knew you would,” he gives Hinata a big thumbs up. 

“Was that embarrassing?” Hinata flushes, hiding his face. “Nobody from my village was like you guys.”

Like most people, Nishinoya asks Hinata about his old village. Unlike most people, when Hinata answers, Nishinoya does not supply the usual condescending “Tokyo must be so much better” or “It must be so hard to adjust.”

Instead, he says, “You must miss it a lot. I can’t imagine coming from a tight-knit community to Tokyo. Sometimes, it attracts the worst kind of people.”

Hinata is dumb-founded. He’s about to open his mouth to speak, when they stop again. It looks as if they’re in a rougher part of town. Nishinoya gives the horn a little honk, and a guy with silver hair and a large guy with a buzzcut comes out of the stoop of an apartment complex. 

“Hello!” the silver-haired guy smiles brightly. He doesn’t have the same rugged punk look that Tanaka and Noya share, but something tells Hinata that he’s just as tough. He turns his grin to Hinata, “I see we have a new friend.”

“This is Hinata,” Tanaka proudly shows him off. “He’s my neighbor.”   
  


“Oh, really?” the silvered hair guy quirks an eyebrow. “You’re not telling me?”

“Yep! It’s the old lady!”

“That’s my grandma,” Hinata croaks. “She’d have a heart attack if she knew I was here.”

“Oh, I know,” he laughs, as the both of them climb into the car, forcing Hinata to squeeze into the middle seat. “I’m Sugawara. This is Daichi.”

Daichi nods. 

“Guess what, Suga-san?! He thinks we’re cool!” Tanaka beams.

“He probably hasn’t spent enough time with you, then,” Daichi snorts. He leans over and whispers to Hinata, “Don’t let the leather jackets, piercings, and chains fool you. These two are the biggest dorks.”

Hinata smiles. This was his best night in a while.

  
***************  
  
  


Their spot is truly a hole-in-the-wall. “Crow’s Nest” was painted in orange block lettering on a plank of wood that hung below the door. Several people dressed like Tanaka and Nishinoya stood out on the gated porch, smoking and drinking. Crushed cans of Asahi littered the gutter. In the window, there was a bright pink neon sign that read “Men’s Club.”

Sugawara noticed Hinata staring at the sign. 

“This used to be a men’s gym. Now, it’s so dilapidated that they couldn’t sell to anyone.”

Hinata also notices a bakery next door. He thinks this must be a horrible location for them. 

A girl with long black hair in an apron comes out to sweep their own patio.

“Kiyoko! The Goddess!” Tanaka and Nishinoya both swoon in unison, rushing to the bakery like pigeons flock to bread crumbs. 

  
“My shift is almost over,” Kiyoko brushes them off. She reaches into the pocket of her apron and reveals two small pieces of sweet bread. She hands it to them, turning away to go inside and lock the door. 

They both look as if they’re about to cry.

“That’s the first time she’s talked to us AND given us food!” Tanaka sniffles, shoving sweet bread into his mouth. “Oh my god, it’s honey!”

“I know. It’s so good,” Nishinoya cries, also shoving the bread into his mouth. Like, there are actual tears coming out of his eyes. 

“It’s not very punk of you to cry over a loaf of bread,” a guy with black spiky hair snarks, as he fiddles with the connection of the outdoor speakers. 

“Shut up, Tetsuro!” Tanaka shouts.

“Being in love with a beautiful woman is super punk!” Nishinoya joins.

“See what I mean?” Daichi leans over to murmur to Hinata.

Hinata nods in confusion.

After a minute of scathing exchange, they finally go inside. Hinata has never seen anything like it. Everybody here was so different from what he ever knew. On stage, a band performed and the growl of their guitars absolutely shook the joint. Hinata can definitely see why all his new friends like this so much. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees two random guys, surrounded by people, kissing.

His stomach lurches nervously. It’s another thing he’d never see in his small village. Suddenly, his world view became a lot bigger. 

  
***********  
  
  


Monday morning, Tanaka walks with Hinata to school again. 

“Wasn’t the act on Saturday so cool?!” he coos. “That female drummer! God, she was something else!”

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Hinata replies, distracted. Truthfully, he really enjoyed the music and met a lot of cool people. But, when he went home that night, he could only think of those two guys… Boys kissing boys. He wondered what it would be like. Then, shocked himself to find out that it interested him. “Can I ask you something?”

Tanaka notices the serious tone, “of course.”

“Saturday night…” Hinata stumbles to find the right words without seeming rude or completely revealing his thoughts. “I saw two guys kiss. Does that normally happen?”

Tanaka breathes a sigh of relief. This wasn’t a big deal to him.“Kinda? Everybody there is cool with it. Being punk is all about accepting people and not adopting old ways of thought.”

“That’s a good way to live,” Hinata breathes, relieved.

Maybe, he likes Tokyo just a little bit more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama and Hinata will meet in the next chapter. I'm just setting everything up. Thanks for reading and leaving comments!


	3. November 1985

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this fic planned out over their 3 years in high school, so I guess it's a bit of a slow burn? Thank you for being patient with me! Finals are soon, I'm moving, and I'm busy with work (my boss has been having me direct the livestream for my college's women's volleyball team. Thanks to Haikyuu I knew all the terms and plays). If you like this fic, please feel free to leave kudos or comments!

Hinata watches the rain beat down against the window, glancing down to watch people on the street pass by. The teacher is talking about their recent English test grades. He already knows he didn’t do well.

In fact, he hasn’t been doing well, since he started hanging out with Tanaka and his friends. 

Everyone at The Crow’s Nest constantly talks about what a pointless rat race the Japanese school system is, but that’s not exactly why Hinata is failing. It’s not like he doesn’t believe school matters. He’s just always struggled with studying and adding a bunch of rebellious friends that he constantly spends time with didn’t help.

And then, there’s his newfound obsession with boys… 

Dreadfully, Hinata looks as the teacher places his test on his desk

43.

He winces.

It’s fine. He just needs a little help.

***********

At lunch break, Yachi gets a glimpse of his score. 

“Woah, Hinata,” she grimaces at his test. “Maybe, you’ve been spending a little too much time with Tanaka.”

“It’s not that,” he defends. He doesn’t want to have to give up his new friends for school. “I just… need to study a little bit more.”

“I’ll tutor you,” she offers. 

“You’re a lifesaver,” Hinata grabs her hands, nearly crying. He’s about to babble more about how amazing she is, when he spots a familiar face passing by the doorway of their classroom. It’s Kageyama. Hinata breath halts. The thought of boys kissing boys suddenly comes back to him. 

And, he hates it. He hates that he has these thoughts about someone he doesn’t know. He hates that he has these thoughts about someone that would probably look down on his friends.

He hates that he has these thoughts about someone who would probably be disgusted if they knew…

He averts his eyes from the doorway. 

He’d rather think about anything besides Kageyama Tobio.

***********

Content, Hinata peddles home quickly, trying to avoid the next batch of rain. 

When he arrives home, his mom is standing on the porch waiting for him with her hands on her hips.

“Shoyo…” she deadpans in a sobering tone. She holds up an envelope from the school with a return address from his high school. Hinata feels betrayed. They never mailed grades back in his village. “We need to talk about your grades.”

Hinata drops his bike into the grass. 

“I’m just having a hard time adjusting,” he lies. 

“I don’t think that’s it,” she says. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Yachi. Dating should not come before school.”

In the back of his brain, Hinata knew he’d regret using Yachi as a cover. But, never once did he tell his mother they were dating. 

“We’re not dating!” Hinata shouts angrily. He hates that everyone wants him to date Yachi. Moreover, he hates that he considers dating her to get everyone off his back. When his mother looks taken aback, he averts his eyes and softens his tone, “we’re just friends…”

“Well..” she breathes. “That may be, but we are hiring a tutor. You can see her again when you bring your grades up.”

“She offered to tutor me!” Hinata claims. 

His mother shakes her head. “No. I think it’d be too much of a distraction. We hired a boy from your class. He’ll be here tomorrow.” 

Instead of arguing, Hinata just agrees. As soon as he gets to his room, he plops onto his bed. He glances over at the clock. 5 p.m. It’s still early. He grabs the phone by his bed and dials a number that he could recite in his sleep by now. 

“Tanaka? My mom won’t let me go out anymore because of my grades. Tonight might be our last chance for a while.”

  
  


*******

It’s 9 p.m. His mom is bathing Natsu, and his grandmother is asleep. 

It’s the perfect time.

Hinata has definitely never done anything like this, but if he’s about to be locked up in tutor hell, he might commit one last act of rebellion.

Quietly, Hinata sneaks down the stairs and walks out of the front door. Down the block, he sees Nishinoya and Tanaka waiting for him. He runs over. 

“Suga-san and Daichi aren’t coming tonight,” Tanaka informs, manually unlocking and pushing the door open. “But, we can have plenty of fun by ourselves.”

With that, Hinata gets in with his heart racing. He’s never felt this exhilarated in his life.

He never wants it to stop.

******

The Crow’s Nest is how it always is. Loud music. Loud, boisterous people. It feels like every night but not at the same time. 

Hinata feels like a prisoner on death row having his last meal. 

Lately, he’s noticed a regular group of people that he thinks may be like him… A group of people he never would have been exposed to in his village. While Tanaka and Nishinoya are arguing about who’s better between The Clash and Sex Pistols (from what Hinata’s heard, it’s definitely The Clash), Hinata locks his stare onto that group, trying to muster the courage to approach them. 

Maybe if he finally kisses a boy and gets it out of his system, he can stop thinking about it. He can stop thinking about the yuppie Kageyama. He can like Yachi, and they’ll get married and have cute kids. 

Sweating in The Crow’s Nest isn’t unusual, because it gets suffocatingly hot and humid inside. It exists as its own ecosystem. But, Hinata doesn’t think his cold sweat is solely because of the temperature. He mumbles a half-assed excuse to Tanaka and Nishinoya, then makes his way towards the group. There are two guys in leather jackets sitting in a booth with one’s arm around the other.

Hinata wants that. 

As he begins to approach them, half of the group shifts to look at him. He doesn’t know if they intended it to be menacing, but it diverts Hinata. He makes a hairpin turn for the men’s restroom. 

When he rushes into the bathroom, he feels as if he’s about to choke. He hunches over the sinks, splashing water on his face. After his breath and heartbeat return to normal, Hinata notices something he hadn’t before. The walls of the men’s room were covered with spray-painted profanities, phone numbers carved into the wall, and pictures tacked to the wall. The pictures were varied: photos of famous figures with red x’s over their eyes, photos of punk groups in Japan and the west, centerfolds of nudie magazines, and other random stuff. But besides the sink, hidden away a little, Hinata notices a Western magazine clipping of two men in shorts and crop tops. 

Guiltily, Hinata rips it from the wall and shoves it into the pocket of his red hoodie. 

As he leaves the men’s room, he grips the page in his pocket tightly. He’s afraid of what people might think that he even wanted it. 

*************

Hinata stares out at the Tokyo skyline as they drive across a bridge. Comically, the stereo spits out Tanaka’s cassette tape in a stream of ribbons. For at least 10 minutes, he cried, mourning his good mixtape. 

So, they were listening to a pop song over the radio. It was the kind of song that he constantly heard everywhere.

Anxiously with his heart in throat, he grazes his thumb against the edge of the page in his pocket. He knows Tanaka said that they don’t care about that sort of thing… But, he still doesn’t want them to know. It’s a basic instinct from living in a small village. Before he moved, he wouldn’t dare let himself even consider it. 

As they are nearing his grandma’s house, they stop at a stop sign a block away.

“Oh, shit, dude,” Nishinoya mumbles, pointing down the street to Hinata’s house. There’s a police officer parked out front. He’s talking to Hinata’s mom who is crying hysterically. His grandma is holding Natsu’s hand and standing at the gate of their yard.

Guilt struck Hinata’s heart like he’s never felt it before. 

Luckily, the car is blocked from view. Hinata starts to get out. 

“I’m gonna go on ahead,” he replies, shutting the door behind him. “I don’t want my mom to see you guys and freak out even more.”

“Ok, little man,” Tanaka peers at him with his eyebrows knitted in concern. “We’ll circle back around in a little bit.”

With that, they leave. 

Feeling his heart beating, Hinata clenches his fist and walks down the sidewalk with his head hanging in shame. 

Natsu spots him first. 

“Big brother is in trouble!” she shouts, pointing towards him with her free hand to reveal his walk of shame. 

Hinata’s heart drops when his mother turns with angry tears in his eyes. She turns to the officer and bows him, apologizing for the trouble that Hinata has caused. 

“We understand, Hinata-san,” he responds, packing his police report into his pocket. “This happens all the time. With all this damn western music nowadays, kids sneak out all the time to go to rock shows or clubs.” He lights a cigarette as he steps off the curb, “or they go to see their girlfriends or boyfriends.” He wishes them a good night as he drives off. 

“Shoyo, where the hell have you been?” his mother demands as soon as the officer leaves. 

Hinata clenches the page in his pocket. Irrationally, he worries that if he reveals one secret then more will start to follow. His mother is already disappointed in him…

“I went to see Yachi one last time,” he lies, unable to look her in the eyes. Though, it doesn’t matter if he lies or tells the truth. He’ll be punished the same either way. 

Hinata’s mother lets out a long-winded, exhausted sigh, wiping the tears from her eyes. 

“I know that you like her, Shoyo,” she mumbles. “Maybe, I was harsh by keeping you from seeing her, but I only want you to do well.”

Silently, Hinata nods with tears in his eyes. It’d hurt less if she just yelled at him. 

“You’re grounded until winter break,” she tells him as she walks away, grabbing Natsu’s hand from grandma.

Choking back tears of shame, Hinata nods obediently and follows her inside. 

*******

The next day, Hinata came home straight from school. He even avoided walking with Tanaka out of pure guilt. Now, he sat in his living room with his grandma and Natsu, waiting for his new tutor to arrive at 5 pm. They were walking a children’s program, and Nastu whooped loudly every time her favorite character appeared.

“You’re too loud, Natsu-chan,” his grandma scolded her. 

Just then, the doorbell rang. His mother, with Hinata trailing behind, answered the door. 

The face standing behind it sent a tingle of shock throughout Hinata’s body. His face drained his shock as his face was agape. 

“I’m here for the tutoring session, Hinata-san,” Kageyama Tobio bows, clutching the cross-strap of his bag with a sense of nervousness. Hinata could never imagine Kageyama nervous, though. 

“Hello! Thank you so much!” she happily greets him. “This is my son, Shoyo.” She moves out of the way, so they can see each other. Hinata averts eye contact. He just needs to play it off as disinterest. “I understand that you two are in the same class. Have you ever met before?”

“I don’t believe so, Hinata-san” Kageyama politely answers. To Hinata’s horror, they make more small talk before his mom inevitably invites him in. Hinata saw in a movie once that vampires can’t enter your home without an invitation. He wonders if the same applies to classmates that he might be attracted to. 

His mom knocks him out of his stupor when she says, “Show him to your room, Hinata-chan.”

Worrying his lip, Hinata turns without words and begins to walk up the stairs like a zombie. He’s afraid to look back to see if Kageyama was following him. He maintains this stiffness even when they reach his room. 

“Your mother tells me that you need help in English,” he says calmly, obviously not reading Hinata’s mortification. He begins to pull textbooks from his backpack. He’s still in his school uniform. Hinata can’t help but watch how the fabric stretches over his shoulders as he moves.

Wordlessly, Hinata nods. He assumes that if he keeps quiet, nothing bad can happen. 

*****

As they go through the workbook, Hinata checks the index for the answer after every prompt. It was all wrong. After Kageyama messed up the complex sentence structure at least 5 times, Hinata started to realize that he wasn’t the perfect student that everyone assumed he was. 

A pop song plays over Hinata’s clock radio. Kageyama misspells the word “satisfied.” Hinata rolls his eyes. He’s imprisoned with a tutor that can barely get the verb-subject agreement right.

“You suck at this,” he huffs, grabbing the workbook from his grasp. Frustrated, he erases Kageyama’s answer and writes the correct one. 

“Hey! I’m not the one that’s failing!” Kageyama bites back with his face turning red in anger and embarrassment. 

Suddenly, Hinata likes Kageyama a lot less. 

He glares, “I don’t know how you aren’t.” He points at the prompt where he was supposed to write “honey” and wrote “chair” instead.

Kageyama averts his gaze. “I study at least 3 hours a night, okay?!”

It’s silent. Hinata hears Natsu yelling downstairs about wanting a snack. 

“Why are you tutoring then?” Hinata breaks the silence and wonders. He’s not mad anymore. Just confused.

“I’m saving up money to study at a university abroad,” he murmurs. “I have to make top grades and make money, so I assumed being a tutor would be best.”

“You’re Vice President of the student body,” Hinata mumbles passive-aggressively, still fixing the workbook. “You could get into any college you want.”

Kageyama’s ears go red. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t have to work hard.”

Like most of his friends, Hinata would never have considered that Kageyama probably had issues and troubles too. At the end of the day, they were both just people. Maybe, Kageyama could be his friend like Tanaka, Nishinoya, or Yachi. It’s the kind of friendship that occurs when two lost youth come together to make the weird teenage years easier.

“If we put our two brain cells together, we could probably do well in English,” Hinata offers softly, handing Kageyama back the yearbook. Then, he beams at Kageyama. “I just won’t tell my mom that you have no clue what you’re doing.”

Hinata doesn’t know it, but Kageyama’s heart skips a beat whenever he smiles. 

*****

First thing Yachi asks him the next morning is who his new tutor is.

“Is it that one guy in 1B with the chestnut hair? He is so hot,” she clamors excitedly. Hinata knows who she’s talking about. He’s not  _ that  _ hot. He’s average. 

“No,” he deadpans, averting his eyes to avoid disclosing any secrets. “It’s Kageyama.”

“Shut up!” she shoves him slightly on the shoulder. Her mouth is agape, and her eyes are wide. “Doesn’t that feel weird?”

He coughs nervously. “No. Why would it?”

“By being Vice President, he’s at the top of the social ladder,” she explains.

“Oh yeah. I guess so,” he breathes a sigh of relief. 

“Was he a jerk or condescending to you?” she demands with an intense face. “If he was rude to my Shoyo, he’ll surely regret it.”

Hinata could describe Yachi’s facial expression as cute. He thinks he should feel something over her being defensive of him, but nothing…

“No. In fact, I think I was rude to him,” Hinata sheepishly admits, feeling guilty for basically calling Kageyama stupid last night. 

Yachi is saying something about how he probably would have been rude if Hinata wasn’t first, but Hinata isn’t really paying attention. Kageyama passes their classroom door. As he’s walking, he spots Hinata out of the corner of his eye and gives a slight smile and wave. 

Hinata thinks there’s a lot more to Kageyama than most realize. And, he wants to know  _ that  _ Kageyama: the one that can barely spell “planet.”

  
  



End file.
